I am too scared to turn on the heating
OAP REVEALS EFFECTS OF ‘HORRENDOUS’ PRICE RISES
A DEWSBURY pensioner has told how the “horrendous” cost of living crisis has left her scared to turn the heating on as she revealed she turned the dial up for the first time in three weeks on Thursday.
Joyce Hays, 77, said she usually opts to wear an extra layer of clothing before turning on the heating, but said the weather was so cold on Thursday that she did not have a choice.
The pensioner spoke to The Examiner about her plight after meeting with the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer on Friday morning - the same day the energy price cap increased for more than 22 million customers.
The leader of the opposition spoke to several concerned residents at Thrive at Connect, in Dewsbury town centre, to ask how they are coping with the hike in energy bills.
Joyce, who lives alone and has mobility issues, said her electric bill has risen by more than £6 a month, while her gas bill has more than doubled.
She said: “I am very annoyed but there is nothing you can do about it.
“They slap it on and you have either got to pay or do without.
“I am not at the stage where I will be cut off, but you have got to think about it.
“I am on my own so there is nobody to help me with anything.”
During a conversation with Keir Starmer, Joyce described the rising cost of living crisis as “horrendous” as she revealed she had switched the heating on for the first time in three weeks on Thursday.
“You are basically going cold in your own home?” asked Sir Keir. “Yes”, replied Joyce.
Yunus, who did not wish to give his surname, has three children and also looks after his elderly, “frail” parents.
He said he was “still in shock” after finding out his bills are shooting
There is nothing you can do about it. They slap it on and you have either got to pay it or do without Joyce Hays
up by almost £2,000 a year - or £40 a week.
“I will have to find ways to reduce my usage,” he said.
“I thought I was already managing that really well, but I’m going to have to cut back even more.
“I dread to think what October will bring. The next six months will be a test.
“And come winter, when the reliance on heating will increase, it is unthinkable to be honest.
“Living in modern society, you think energy is something that is affordable for everybody as it’s something that everybody uses. I would never have imagined that I would be looking at the day where I’m thinking ‘I can’t afford it.’” Despite facing his own problems, Yunus insisted he was more focused on taking care of his elderly parents.
“For me, my parents are my biggest concern because they are both old and frail and need the heating on,” he said.
“They can’t go out and earn extra money.
“It will be very tough for them and I will have to give them the extra support, but I don’t know where that is going to come from.”
The 58-year-old said he is “angry and frustrated” at the government’s response to the cost of living crisis.
“Why is the government not doing more to help people?” he said. “There are ways to make things more affordable.”
Elaine Wilkes told how her bills have gone up by 50 per cent.
“I have my own mental health difficulties so I find that I am worried and scared about it all,” she said. “
And that is because I live on my own. But I am quite good at budgeting.
“I support friends and family of people who have mental health problems and I think it’s going to have a huge effect on people because they are already struggling.
“People are quite desperate. We need understanding and for the government to know that we need some help. I am not asking for people to take care of me, I am asking for a reasonable chance - and we don’t have it.”
Speaking to local media, Sir Keir
Starmer promised to “take all of these stories back to Westminster because they all matter to me.”
“It is the human stories that really matter today,” he said.
“They give me even greater determination - we have got to do something about it.
“Whether it’s Joyce who is not putting her central heating on, even though she is a pensioner with mobility problems, or other people who are saying they now go to the supermarket and pick things up before putting them back down again because they can’t afford them.
“These are the human stories behind the energy price hike and they are the direct result of the pathetic response of the government.”
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, has announced measures which he says will help people amid the ongoing cost of living crisis.
Measures already announced include a £200 loan to help with energy bills and a hike in the threshold for paying National Insurance.
But Sir Keir said the government needed to do much more as he called for a windfall tax on oil and gas companies.
“Because the global prices were so high, they made more profit than they had anticipated,” he said.
“The fair thing is to say ‘let’s have a windfall tax on that’ and use that to bring those energy bills down for people like Joyce who are really, really worried.”